Gamebase explains how they are preparing their next iteration of Gamebryo engine ready for DirectX 12.

DirectX 12 is going to improve a lot of technical processes when it launches late next year. Gaming PCs that have a multiple GPU set up will see benefits as the new iteration of the API will make sure there are no bottlenecks due to the CPU. However this does not mean that simply using DX 12 will resolve all the problems in one go. The developers will still need to code accordingly.

In our interview with Bryan Tarlowski, Marketing Director at Gamebase and Yoonjae Hwang who is one of the lead engineers on Gamebryo, it was revealed that DX12 will require applications do a lot of validation and book keeping. Book keeping means that developers need to use the same section of the code at different places, with little to no changes.

“Although it’s true that DirectX12 offers opportunities for better performance by allowing developers a lot of low-level control of graphics device, it also means that application needs to do explicitly a lot of book keeping and validation that video drivers used to do for us,” the duo said to GamingBolt.

However they will be using the next iteration of Gamebryo to resolve this issue. “Using Gamebryo can eliminate this kind of tedious work from developers while still obtaining all the benefits of DX12. Also Gamebryo abstracts away architectural differences between DX11 and DX12 like the removal of immediate context, so Gamebryo can help developers move to DX12 in the least intrusive way.”

In the end, nothing happens magically. DirectX 12 will no doubt change the game development scene for PC gaming and Xbox One. But developers will still need to find ways to properly optimize and program according to the new API.

Dev’s wanted the “closer to metal” programming and that’s just one of the things that comes with it. I’m certain they are aware of this and have already laid out plans as to how it will be done.

Anon

“Book keeping means that developers need to use the same section of the code at different places, with little to no changes.”

That’s bound to be referring to state and resource management rather than anything really related to the execution.

Look at the “book-keeping” that previous graphics apis have had to do to abstract away the complexities and generalize common tasks; it’s these sorts of details that fall back into the hands of developers because things can be better tailored per use-case. If anyone is going to know exactly how their data is transformed and moved around, it’s going to be the developers themselves, so just provide them the ability to manage (‘book-keep’) resources themselves.

albatrosMyster

That also means they only get to do the “bookkeeping” they need to do, saving ressources, thus saving precious memory and CPU cycles.

Those who don’t want or can’t do all this manual labor can use higher level tools like the Unreal engine, Unity, etc. to create their games without worrying too much about the underlying hardware/software architecture.

They will do all the bookkeeping they think they need to… then the games that run on these will seem a bit lacking compared to those taylored around the architecture.

Mark

Man listen, just show me some Physically Based lighting, and I’ll buy all games that run it. That COD:AW campaign is lookin sick.